The Incan Gruge, er I mean the rainy season, continued during our exodus from Cusco and the Sacred Valley to our next adventures in Lake Titicaca. Lots of water: a pretty amazing giant lake to go with all the rain. And at a higher elevation than Cusco!
Because I have no sense of time or dates these days, I´ll try to give a recap of the latest journeys in Peru but its going to be a little repetitive and streamofconsciousnessliscious.
Sometime after spending New Years Eve in Cusco, waking up at 5:30 AM NY morning to go to Aguas Calientes (again, the tourist town created for visitors to the Big MP), waking up the next day at 4:30 AM to spend the rain-soaked day in the Big MP, then waking up the next morning at 6 AM to get on a day tour bus to Puno (the city to stay in along Lake Titicaca), was the day I woke up at 6 AM in Puno to have a little bit of time to email and write in my journal before an 8 AM pickup for an island tour of the Lake.
But we got a knock on our door at 6:50 that the bus to take us on our lake tour was already at our hostal to pick us up! Confusion and mixups go with the travel shindig, but usually South American times run LATE not early so I was extra confused. We quickly grabbed some stuff to take for our overnight stay on one of the islands, and oh yeah Ming was in the shower so first got ourselves and some stuff together before getting on the bus with my apologies to the other passengers. One other American had the same mix up, thinking the bus was coming one hour later, so I didnt think much of it.
We visited the islands of Uros, which are built upon REEDS and float about in Lake Titicaca. The first island we visited was relatively small, and we got the lowdown on how the islands are made and some local customs plus a tour of peoples reed huts (complete with TVs and solar panels, so crazy!). This was really interesting. And an explanation that Lake Titicaca in Quecha, the indigenous language, means "Puma Stone" so do not snicker because caca is a dirty word in Spanish (and immature English speakers like myself were snickering because titi aint so great either).
On our way to the next island, we realized that everyone else was on a one day tour and we were on the way to the island we were supposed to visit the next day according to our program. So after some phone calls and scrambling, we got dropped off at another floating island and hopped on the correct boat going for the 2 day tour. Though we didnt get that extra hour of time in the morning back - it that ended up being good because the RAIN came then and we were at least spared most of it for our early hour and first island visit. As well as spared the onslaught of tourists, who were in full force by later morning. Them there humans get in the way of my well-framed photos!
Once on our correct boat, we headed out on a 4 hour journey to the island where we were to stay overnight, Amantani. Having not done our Footprints homework or been told by the travel agent who arranged our program, we thought we were staying at a hostal ot hotel, but turns out our accomodations were with a local family! Which was news to us (as well as that the island was equipped with elecricity in the past but can no longer afford it). But a very interesting experience, to have a glimpse into the daily lives of the Quechan islanders. The main industries are agriculture (LOTS of potatoes are planted everywhere), fishing (and they dont really eat meat), and tourism (yours truly in a homestay). I would have been more engaged in the experience had I not been feeling weak and congested on account of having a cold, but I did really appreciate the hospitality of our host family even given the language barrier and my quietness (yes, me, quiet). We had lunch, dinner, and breakfast the following morning prepared by our host madre. Its amazing how tasty different combos of potatoes, carrots, eggs and rice can be! And the muña tea, from a kind of mint, is pretty tasty and cleared my stuffyness. We took a muña tea and donut break during a hike, located at the top of high peak on the island, from which you gain a great view of the mighty lake - and Bolivia (though make sure to take note that Peru owns 60% of the lake. They are proud of this fact). The host families also dressed us up in traditional Quechan dress for a fiesta in the evening - it took host mom and daughter a few minutes to place all the layers on me (one of which was like a CORSET, which did not go well with my feeling ill AND the altitude, especially because I stopped taking the altitude medication because it made me pee too much - too much info, but too bad you´re getting it anyway). And it took about 3 seconds for Ming to put on a poncho; its just not fair what women have to go through to look good. =)
Though I an definitely not looking good these days, as my nose clearly displays the weather I have been exposed to - a mixture of sunburn and windburn has left it peeling (and thus very unappealling, hee). But today we had sun and warmth for most of the day - before more rain - here in Arequipa. Which is, by the way, described in Footprints as having "360 days of sunshine." And it was pouring when we arrived yesterday, and part of today. Of course.
But DeAnn is a happy camper, er traveller. I had coffee, bananas, and sun today. Yay.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment